Infrastructure-mounted RFID tags
First Claim
1. An RFID-based inventory management system of a type including an RFID reader, comprising:
- an RFID-readable product tag associated with a piece of merchandise;
a plurality of RFID-readable infrastructure tags having unique identities associated with fixed locations on a storage or display areas capable of sending signals to and receiving return signals from RFID readable tags;
a system controller associated with the RFID reader such that the system controller is either programmed to require two or more of the infrastructure tags to be detected by the RFID reader in a particular sequence, or the system controller dictates an order in which the infrastructure tags are to be read for a proper count; and
where the system controller is programmed to determine a location of the product tag based on times at which the RFID reader receives the return signals from the product tag and the infrastructure tag.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Infrastructure-mounted RFID-readable tags or transponders are provided for various applications. Such infrastructure tags may be employed in combination with RFID-readable product tags and an RFID reader for an improved inventory-management system which requires both types of tags to be scanned to constitute a successful product count. Infrastructure tags may also be employed as “read” or “no-read” tags in an RFID read field. The infrastructure tags of the RFID read field are combined with an RFID reader which is dynamically adaptable during initial set-up and use to improve the performance of the read field. When a perturbing object is detected in the read field, one or more performance parameters of the reader are adjusted to overcome any perturbing influence caused by the object.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. An RFID-based inventory management system of a type including an RFID reader, comprising:
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an RFID-readable product tag associated with a piece of merchandise; a plurality of RFID-readable infrastructure tags having unique identities associated with fixed locations on a storage or display areas capable of sending signals to and receiving return signals from RFID readable tags; a system controller associated with the RFID reader such that the system controller is either programmed to require two or more of the infrastructure tags to be detected by the RFID reader in a particular sequence, or the system controller dictates an order in which the infrastructure tags are to be read for a proper count; and where the system controller is programmed to determine a location of the product tag based on times at which the RFID reader receives the return signals from the product tag and the infrastructure tag. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification